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Botanic gardens unite for diversity

A STRATEGY to link several hundred botanic gardens across the world
into a global network, thereby making plant conservation more effective,
was launched in London last week. The Botanic Gardens Conservation Strategy
comes at a time when a quarter of the world’s plants are in danger of becoming
extinct over the next 25 years. Also, many of the remaining species are
likely to show little genetic variation.

‘Botanic gardens cannot save rainforests but they can conserve a lot
of the plants that grow in them,’ said Vernon Heywood, director of the Botanic
Gardens Conservation Secretariat. ‘United, the botanic gardens of the world
are a major and untapped source of plants for conserving genetic diversity.’

Following the model of the World Conservation Strategy, which has underpinned
nature conservation over the past decade, this new strategy for plants offers
a blueprint for conservation in gardens and arboreta in both temperate and
tropical countries. There are some 1500 gardens and arboreta around the
world, but until now their work has been largely uncoordinated.

In the past, botanic gardens in tropical countries played a vital part
in developing the new crops that nurtured empires – rubber, coffee and oil
palm, for example. Today, they are ideal places in which to develop new
crops that might be needed as the global climate changes.

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The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation and the International Board
for Plant Genetic Resources already have programmes and facilities for conserving
the genetic material of basic crop plants, but there is no equivalent for
wild plants. The new programme says that botanic gardens should concern
themselves more with species used in medicine, along with fruits, vegetables
and spices used on a smaller scale.

‘The case for conserving plants is compelling,’ said Ronald Davey, the
Queen’s physician. Apart from species that provide food, many contain compounds
that form the basis of drugs. Morphine, atropine, penicillin and the cancer
drug vincristine, all come from plants and many of today’s designer drugs
were inspired by plant substances, he said. More than 80 per cent of the
world’s population still uses remedies from natural sources. Some medicinal
plants are heavily exploited and need to be conserved, both to ensure that
they survive for traditional use and so that scientists can analyse them
for their active ingredients.

‘The strategy aims to put the conservation of wild plants on a scientific
and technical basis,’ said Heywood. The secretariat will build a database
to keep track of who is doing what and advise gardens on how best to implement
the strategy in their country. The strategy encourages gardens to share
the costs of expensive facilities. Stephanie Pain